Capítulo 141: - Aftermath
The fire had raged all night long and while many had run through the streets flinging water over the flames, little was done to save many of the houses. In total, the monsters had killed nearly three hundred people when compared to the population of a thousand.
It was too much blood on her hands.
The only joy Lia got out of watching the fire rage was seeing Florence in the sky, bringing down a flurry of lightning from the storm, hitting every single monster. The bolts of energy had traveled down the streets, down the gutters, over buildings and around people, before blasting the hearts of monsters open like tin cans.
It brought her joy to see those monsters fall like men, dead with a gaping hole through their chest. And that scared her.
But more than that, she hoped Arnold had seen it from afar and relished in the fear as the sky was torn in a bright light of death falling from above!
The Master had rallied every refugee who had lost their homes and offered his own house as a place of refuge. The nearby churches did the same, offering them the blessing of their gods in return for peace and safety.
Sadly, most of the houses that had been destroyed, their owners and their families were often close to follow in death, so there were not many who had lost their own homes and had walked away with their lives. It was horrid in many ways, but to Lia, it was dull.
Dull?
She cursed herself for thinking such a thing, her mind and eyes pacing over the bodies of humans, monsters, blood, and rubble that littered the ground like a war friend. Like a king who had marched his men against this wonderful little city slaughtering all those in his way. How he raised his horn to the sky and blasted fire and death over top of them.
It made her angry. Angry. Filled with fury.
She did not believe in curses nor did she believe in the divine. All she believed in was that to get reparations, revenge, or even the slightest bit of karma, you had to do it yourself.
You had to be the one to draw the blade from its sheath. You had to be the one who would race through the edge of the world, cashing your hated villain through mountains, plains, forests and oceans.
You had to be the one to stick the blade through their heart and watch the color drain from their faces as their lives slowly slipped from their grasp like the soul as it drained out of them.
She swore upon this logic. She crossed her heart a thousand times over as her eyes refused to leave the distant marshes that Arnold had escaped through.
She swore she would be the one to stick her blade through him.
***
"Where is Cain?"
Lia asked as he walked past the crying figures of civilians, civilians she had once seen dancing, laughing and beating drums in joy. Now they held their dead family in their arms. Or what was left of them.
Kal, who walked beside her, simply shrugged. He had not spoken once since he had rejoined her after leaving his master's side. Despite Lia knowing that he could speak, she didn't demand his voice.
She wanted peace right now and the sobs of the men and women, children and animals around her were a constant reminder of the goal she now needed to achieve.
Arnold's head on a pike!
"I've tried getting him to answer, but he's remained quiet for a long time."
Kal said nothing, and at once Lia was regretting what she had wished for just moments before. She needed to hear a voice, a voice she could trust, not a voice that reminded her of her failure.
"You think he's busy with something?"
Again, Kal said nothing and the thought died there as Lia turned her head to lay eyes on the Great House, a building once painted with glistening white marble and paint was now covered in soot and dark patches.
No doubt they were blood, but of whom Lia did not want to know, already her stomach was churning on the inside as she made her way past the many injured figures who crowded around the steps of the Great House.
The two of them made their way past the guard who did not bother to ask her for identification. They knew her, and like the people on the steps they cowered at the sight of her.
She was the woman who rained hell from the sky.
And laughed while doing it.
The halls were filled with maids and butlers rushing through different doors, some carrying bowls of hot water while others carried bloody rags. The groans and whales of the injured and dying were filling the House with haunting thoughts and spirits.
But Lia didn't have time for that, and cared little for it all the same. People got out of her way as she made her path down the hall clear. The butlers and maids, the injured lying on the floor even shifted to get out of her way.
While Kal was a good reminder of her power, his imposing aura encompassing them all with fear, Lia's cold and expressionless eyes were even more fearful. Especially with a face covered in blood, yet an expression of pure cold nothingness.
She looked like death walking through the soon to die.
As they both neared the Master's office, two large and dark wooden doors with beautifully designed carvings, Lia could hear the sounds of an argument raging on the inside.
She didn't bother to knock, a guard had come to her earlier today when the sun was just peaking above the distant mountains, informing her that her presence was needed immediately at the Great House. The Master was expecting her, and Lia felt all the kindness in the world had just left her the moment she watched Arnold leave.
But before she entered, there was one thing that pained her heart as her mind fluttered back to the distant thought. Slightly turning to Cain, Lia gave out an order, her dull voice echoing through between them.
"Kal, search the city for Rian. If he's alive , come find me."
Kal tilted his head as if to ask a question, a question Lia already knew yet struggled with saying it. Her voice shook and her heart cracked a bit farther as she spoke.
"If he's dead then…find me."
With that, she turned her back to him and Kal was left with the same daring impression of his master all over again as he turned and sped off down the halls, his image becoming a blur and a gust of wind as he disappeared from behind Lia.
She eyed the door, took a deep breath, and then opened it.
***
"How could you let so many inside?"
"They're injured and their city was just burned to the ground! How could I not?"
"Our city was burned down. Ours!"
Lia's blank face stare did little to keep the hint of dull surprise that flooded her eyes. The room had only three people inside, one of which was the Master while the other two were his daughter and wife.
The couple seemed engaged in a heated conversation involving the many injured civilians outside. Out of caution, Lia entered the room and closed the door silently behind her, afraid that some poor child who had everything taken away from him would overhear this.
"The local inns and churches are enough to keep the people protected and provided for. Why do we have to walk our halls with caution, afraid that these people will steal from us?"
The Master rubbed his forehead, flabbergasted with what his wife was saying, but sadly - and much to the pain of Lia's ears - she wasn't done.
"Already Daniel has caught three children trying to make off with our candle holders! What did you expect when you brought in these people?"
"I expected you to be a little bit more sincere about their situation. Not ranting to me about how your personal servant caught three kids playing with candle holders!"
The Master took a seat at the nearest table, clenching his fists in anger before he saw the shadow of Lia's figure on the floor.
"Ah, Lia, um…"
He cast a hateful glare towards his wife who scowled at Lia, possibly for overhearing their conversation.
"...sorry that you had to hear that. Thank you for coming - please, take a seat."
He gestured to a nearby leather chair that sat opposite his daughter, who cast worried looks towards Lia, obviously afraid of her. His wife however, was visibly more upset that Lia had been offered a seat considering they were still in the midst of a heated argument.
"Don't ignore me! How are we going to deal with all these peasants in our home? What happens if they decide to rally together and steal from us all at once? What happens when they decide to come for us, you can't expect Sina to just cower in her room while they're here?"
The Master banged his fist on the table causing his wife to jolt in surprise. It was then that Lia could see the fiery rage of a soldier in his eyes. It was the same look that he had carried with him while he had run through the streets, through the blood and battered flesh of his people fighting hand in hand with his men.
It was the look of a leader still enraged by the fires of war, despite coming home. He had little patience for his wife now, and it was beginning to show.
"I expect you to deal with it. Come to me again like this complaining about how you can't deal with our people injured and dying, after losing their homes and their families, then you can leave!"
A bit harsh in Lia's eyes but then again she didn't care much for the inner workings of their family. All she had on her mind at the moment was killing Arnold, rescuing Lukali, and ending this all once and for all.
If this woman was going to get in the way of that, she was better off out of Lia's way, lest she be culled down with the enemies that stood before her.
'Either you get out of my way, or you face my blade.'
The Master's wife could hardly believe what she was hearing and in one last fit of rage, she took the nearest glass vase she had and threw it against the wall, before grabbing Sina's hand and leaving. It was the first and possibly last moment Lia would see the woman break her perfect 'elegant' stature.
"I apologize for them. No doubt you agree with me on this case, but right now they are simply headaches I can't deal with."
The Master slumped down in his chair as Lia watched him with careful and meticulous eyes.
"Do they fear the people in the halls?"
"My wife is from a prominent family. The only 'normal' people she's seen were her parents. I can't really blame her - no matter how much I want to - but she's always been raised to believe that all those outside her ring of 'elegance' were dangerous. Naturally now she fears for our daughter's safety."
"And your daughter? Does she fear them?"
The master chucked looking to Lia with sad and war torn eyes. They were filled with the images of the battle he had been in, and unlike Lia, it hit him hard in the heart to see his people be mercilessly slaughtered.
"No, she fears you more than she does the people in the halls. That was in fact one of my wifes main arguments was to cast you from my house. Though I think she failed to realize that this house is mine in the end, and I will choose what to do with it as I please."
"And with time?"
"Well…"
He glanced out the window of his office over the charred remains of his garnered and the destroyed and remnants of burning houses, the embers still glowing in the morning soot fog.
"People fear you after you've brought the sky down on them. They also, like my wife, fail to relive that it was you who saved us."
"I take no credit where it is not due. Your soldiers and you did a lot for them."
"Yes and I know that. No doubt I will go down in history after this as the one who led his men into the Battle of Crimson flames. That's what they're calling it now. You won't be remembered as the savior but more as a passing villain."
Lia didn't care much for that, she only wished to be remembered and feared. Fear would help her now more than acceptance. It was this blindness that the Master could see, and he loathed it about her.
"You should be remembered as the hero in this case, not me. Sadly I can't give any truth to the people, lest they see it as propaganda. The other four clan leaders would have my head if that was the case."
(A/N: I've changed the number of Clans and Clan heads to five. It makes this easier to keep track of for readers.)
It was no, as these words echoed in Lia's ears, that her interest peaked.
"Why would the clan heads care about you?"
The Master turned to her with a sad smile, his eyes turning to the ground as he folded his hands together.
"That's right, I haven't told you yet have I? Well, there are five clans as you know, that are based around the five elements. Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. There is also the fifth, the war clan of Metal, though they keep to themselves mostly. This is the land of the earth Clan, the mountain, the forests, the rivers and the plains. It's peaceful."
He smiled, his mind flooding with the memories of his childhood years when he would play in the rivers and the creeks, roll in the mud with his friends and train with his father in the sword.
But his smile soon faded when the memory of his father passing came back to him and the mantle of the Clan leader was placed on him when he was only sixteen years of age. Far too young and weak in the eyes of the other Clan leaders and something they loved to point out and demean him.
But it was the fact that Lia knew nothing of this as she was not native to Morden, and thus, she paid extra attention to all the little details the Master spoke of.
"My name is Sir Reinheart of the Earth Clan. The makers of the Mountains and the forests, the rivers and the lakes. We are the keepers of the land and the woods."
He looked to Lia with steady eyes, eyes that were ready for anything as the weight of the mantle bore down on him greatly.
"In this battle of the Crimson Flame I have been remembered as a hero, while you Lia of Endless will be remembered as a villain who caused it. The people are already beginning to talk about how it was the bout between two powerful forces, the Lady of Fire - you - and the Dragon slayer that caused this catastraphy."
He took a deep breath and sighed, feeling the weight leave him as his voice grew quiet.
"You will be seen as a villain from now on, and there is nothing I can do to stop them. But even so, I'd like to ask this of you."
Lia's face was dull and emotionless, empty and filled with nothingness. It made it earlier for her mind and heart to be told what to do, rather than have herself lead her own flesh and blood into a trap.
And it was these words that the girl took to heart more than anything, igniting the flame that would burn like a forest fire raging towards the sky.
"I'd like you to be the villain just a little longer."
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